Broadcast 3rd August 2000

	Listen to the interview with the European Commission spokeswoman Amelia Torres

Microsoft has run up against the anti-trust authorities yet again. Not only is the US software giant fighting a rearguard action in the US, where is is appealing a judge's decision to break it up, but the European Commission has sent it a "statement of objections" for allegedly using its dominant position in the personal computer market to try to dominate the server market. .
The move follows allegations from another US software company, Sun Microsystems, that Microsoft's virtual monopoly in PC software means it has an obligation to give its competitors technical information about its software in order to allow their servers and PCs run by Microsoft's Windows to interact - which is something Sun says it has not done.

Our reporter Charlotte Cooper spoke to Amelia Torres, the spokeswoman for EU Commissioner Mario Monti, who explained what had been happening:


"The allegations are that Microsoft has abused its dominant position in the market for personal computer operating systems by leveraging the power they have in that market onto another market. The other market being service software.

"Everybody knows that Microsoft has an uncontested dominance over the operating systems for personal computers, as its systems equip something like 95 per cent of personal computers around the world. So the accusations that have been made, that Microsoft was deliberately refusing to supply information that Sun Microsystems deemed to be essential, or to license part of the facility to Sun Microsystems."

Microsoft equips something like 95 per cent of personal computers around the world. Amelia Torres

"Obviously, if they had done that, with the purpose of keeping competition at bay, that would be a violation of competition rules."

Charlotte Cooper asked if that meant the Commission had actually opened anti-trust proceedings against Microsoft?

"Yes, the Commission has done just that. It is based on the Sun Microsystems evidence, but it is not just that. First of all, Sun Microsystems complained in December 1998 - the Commission has been investigating this complaint for about a year and a half.

"The Commission itself tried to investigate and come to its own conclusions on this issue, and the conclusion at this stage is that we have evidence that Microsoft may have breached European competition rules by not disclosing sufficient interface information about its PC operating systems to competitors, for whom that information is absolutely crucial for them to carry out their own business."

Charlotte Cooper then asked what the next step was?

"The next step is that Microsoft has now two months to reply to the Commission’s objections - so it must do so by the beginning of October. Normally, in the natural proceedings there would be an aural hearing of the parties including Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, and at the end the Commission must come to a final decision."

Microsoft has two months to reply to the Commission's objectionsnt. Amelia Torres